Club honours reps

FIJI Swimming held its annual awards night at the Northern Club in Lautoka on Saturday.

Sponsored by Hot Bread Kitchen the event was hosted by the Great White Sharks Club which is the lone swimming club in Lautoka.

Fiji Swimming president Ben Rova said they recorded many important achievements this year.

Rova said 2017 was their second year of the four-year strategic plan set by them.

"Fiji Swimming welcomes the appointment of Mark Davis as the high performance coach," Rova said.

"He has been working with the respective coaches and squads through training sessions and training camps. This year we also went full on with the establishment of the gold, silver and bronze squad which was based on a selection criteria.

"Through this criteria we were fortunate enough to secure funding and were able to send athletes to the various competitions around the world."

Fiji Swimming created history at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas winning its first ever medal.

"I acknowledge the swimmers who went to the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas.

"We achieved a milestone with Taichi Vakasama winning Fiji's first ever medal, a bronze at the Games.

"We participated at the Budapest Long Course Championship and also participated at the sixth FINA World Junior Swimming in Minneapolis and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.

"We participated in four important events. This is all part of our preparations for the 2019 Pacific Games and 2020 Olympic Games.

"This year we will have the team training in Queensland in December. They will also compete in the Queensland Open Championship. Matelita Buadromo, Cheyenne Rova, Taichi Vakasama, Epeli Rabua have met the criteria. These are the four that have also met the requirements to represent Fiji at the Commonwealth Games, but the selection is still open until November 29.

"The scholarship is effective from September 2017. We also acknowledge Taichi for being awarded the FINA scholarship for 2017-2018 and Kalen Eyre for getting a two-year Oceania National Olympic Committee Lincoln College sports and academic scholarship from August 2017 to September 2019.

"So for the young swimmers there are many scholarships on offer.

"We had two swimmers who excelled not only in swimming but attained academic achievements. They are Tieri Erasito and Cheyenne, both of them are on scholarships and have completed their degrees in the United States. They now have further degrees and post graduate diplomas.

"They have set a benchmark for the rest of the swimmers that you can get there also. We congratulate Paul Elaisa who has also completed the diploma program and is now in the degree program."